Junkers Ju 87
The''' Ju-87 Stuka''' dive bomber was the classic precision bomber which provided very effective "airborne artillery" support to the rapidly advancing columns of German tanks in their Blitzkrieg tactic. It had a Junkers Jumo 211 Engine and its top speed was around 255 mph. Its main disadvantage was that it was a slow and easy target for enemy fighters. The Stuka pilot had excellent view from the cockpit and special indicators which conveniently informed him of his dive angle and when he reached the optimal bomb release altitude, allowing him to focus entirely on precise aiming during the fast steep dive. The Stuka was also very stable, making it easier for the pilot to aim the bomb. It had an arm that moved the bomb away from the aircraft body before releasing it, for better safety. The Stuka had a fixed landing gear with front wheel covers, which allowed the Stuka squadrons to land and take off from primitive unprepared front line "airfields", allowing them to stay close to the rapidly advancing German ground forces, enabling each Stuka to fly up to ten short-range attack sorties every day, making it accordingly several times more efficient than a similar tactical support aircraft that had to fly from more convenient airfields further from the advancing front. The Stuka also had a siren that was meant to strike fear and intimidation into enemy forces and civilians.http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=97 However, by the Battle of Britain, most units had removed the sirens from their aircraft because, according to Major Helmut Bode of Dive Bomber Geschwader 77 '' 'They were slow enough without the extra drag'. ''The Hardest Day - The Battle of Britain 18th August 1840 by Alfred Price. Published bu Arrow Books Limited 1990 History The Stuka first flew in 1935. It was perfectly suited for its role of tactical precision dive bomber. It was equipped with many dedicated special features, the important "small details" of design that make one aircraft much better than another. The Stuka had a dedicated autopilot system that automatically brought it to a dive when the pilot extracted the dive brakes, prevented damaging pilot stirring during the dive while not limiting the pilot's ability to aim, and then automatically pulled the aircraft out of the dive and back to level flight when the bomb was dropped. Since the G-suit was not yet invented then, pilots could temporarily lose consciousness because of the high G force during the pull out of the fast near-vertical dive, and crash to the ground, but the autopilot prevented that from happening. Unlike high altitude level bombing, which was not precise, and unlike low altitude precision attacks with guns and rockets which became more popular later in the war as those smaller air weapons became more powerful, dive bombing was highly effective since the beginning of World War II for many types of precision attacks, such as cutting roads, smashing bridges, destroying supply convoys and installations, attacking ground forces of all types, cracking fortified positions and tanks, even sinking ships of all sizes. It remained the precision bombing method of choice much later after World War II until it was gradually replaced by using guided bombs and missiles for precision air attacks. These abilities were exactly what the German military needed for the airborne element of their new and revolutionary Blitzkrieg (lightning war) tactic when they developed it before World War II. References Category:German Aircraft Category:Dive Bombers Category:Bombers